Birmingham, AL (population: 226,152) has seven medicine and health schools within its city limits. Birmingham Southern College, the highest ranked school in the city with a medicine and health program, has a total student population of 1,549. It is the 215th highest ranked school in the USA and the 2nd highest in the state of Alabama (#1 is Auburn University Main Campus).
Medicine and Health students from Birmingham schools who go on to become medicine and health professionals, office administrators, massage therapists, trainers, etc. have a good chance at finding employment. For example, there are 271,710 people working as medical and health services managers alone in the US, and their average annual salary is $90,970. Also, Registered nurses make on average $66,530 per year and there are about 2,583,770 of them employed in the US today. In fact, in the Birmingham-Hoover area alone, there are 14,330 employed registered nurses earning an average salary of $60,980. Medical and health services managers in this area earn $86,250/yr and there are 750 employed.
Birmingham lies in Jefferson county, which is one of the 67 counties in Alabama. Overall, the Birmingham-Hoover area has 494,530 total employed workers according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, with a 1% unemployment rate, $19/hr average worker wage, and a $40,060 average annual salary. Thus, about 2 out of every 1000 jobs in Birmingham are held by medical and health services managers, and 29/1000 are held by registered nurses.
Of the 7 medicine and health schools in Birmingham, only 1 has a student population over 10k. After taking into account tuition, living expenses, and financial aid, Virginia College-Birmingham comes out as the most expensive ($21,586/yr) for medicine and health students, with Jefferson State Community College as the lowest, reported at only $6,192/yr.
| Name | State | Population | # of Schools | Avg School Rank | Total Programs | Distance from Birmingham |
| Tuscaloosa | AL | 93,932 | 3 | 20.4548 | 201 | 47.2 miles |
| Boaz | AL | - | 1 | 17.4406 | 20 | 59.0 miles |
| Alexander City | AL | - | 1 | 11.6004 | 38 | 63.6 miles |
| Selma | AL | - | 3 | 7.26701 | 32 | 78.7 miles |
| Huntsville | AL | 185,501 | 8 | 18.2034 | 320 | 82.2 miles |
| Montgomery | AL | 200,848 | 12 | 20.659 | 359 | 87.0 miles |
| Athens | AL | - | 7 | 24.5606 | 224 | 88.6 miles |
| Auburn University | AL | - | 1 | 74.9047 | 131 | 99.5 miles |